Google Seeks Dismissal of E-Books Case

Google Inc. asked a U.S. court to dismiss a lawsuit by authors over the digitizing of books, saying that the company’s book-scanning program is a fair use of copyrighted material and a benefit to the public and authors.

U.S. Circuit Judge Denny Chin, sitting as a trial judge in the case, in May rejected Google’s argument that lawsuits by the Authors Guild and the American Society of Media Photographers should be dismissed because the groups lacked standing to sue for copyright infringement. The suits stem from Google’s plan, announced in 2004, to scan millions of books from public and university libraries to provide snippets of text to people who use its Internet search engine.